Naruto and the Hunter's Path
by bocefaus
Summary: 5 years after the attack of the Nine-Tailed Fox, Naruto leaves the village to protect his friend that has gotten hurt from a recent attack, now join Naruto in his adventures as he returns at the age of 12, stronger than ever before and help train a squad of elite rouge ninja hunters as their sensei. Strong godlike Naruto. First attempt at a harem so please go easy. Also a few OC's?
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone, this is Bocefaus here with another Naruto Fanfiction, this one however is a Fanfiction Challenge posted by Methos-Kyuubi777. (And my first Challenge Fanfiction that I'll be doing too.) To learn the exact specifics of the challenge and to see if you want to participate in it as well I encourage everyone to check out his profile.**

**This begins an interesting chapter into Naruto's life, I hope everyone enjoys this story.**

**Naruto and the Hunter's Path**

**Chapter 1.**

**The betrayal.**

five years after the attack by the Masked Man and the Nine-tailed Fox, the Hidden Leaf Village was bustling with excitement as usual. Stores were prospering and people were having a good time outside. All but one child who was swinging by himself on the swing in front of the Ninja Academy.

The boy was 5 years of age, blonde spiky hair with vibrant blue eyes that were currently looking down at the ground and occasionally to the 4 faces of the Hokage monument above the Village. The most interesting features on the boy are the whisker marks on his cheeks, three on each cheek. The clothing style seemed to be the simple white t-shirt with the swirl on the back with black shorts and blue sandals. The boy continued to glance between the faces and the ground and sighed. "Man, today is going to be boring...and it's still early in the day." he said, today was one of the day offs for the Academy and the boy had nothing to do.

After a while the sounds of footsteps walked up to the boy and he sighed, expecting another harsh comment or something to happen, what came next surprised the young boy. "Hey, Naruto, whacha doing?" came a young female's voice as the boy, now named Naruto, turned around to see a young girl, same age and blonde like him, a little less bright blonde, but still blonde, with blue eyes that seemed to have no pupils. She seemed to be wearing tan shorts and a purple shirt.

"Oh...uh..." Naruto tapped his head trying to remember the young woman's name, _'Dang, I had to be bad with names...'_ He thought as the girl chuckled and shook her head as he popped his fist into his palm remembering. "Ino, right?" he asked as the girl nodded. "I uh...well honestly I don't know what I'm doing, sitting around I guess." he said shrugging as Ino giggled. "What?"

"It's just that you got a lot of energy, and you're just sitting around, it's funny." Ino said, finding the humor in it as Naruto blinked and shrugged. "You wanna play a game? My dad's on a mission so he won't be home for a while." she said.

Naruto beamed with happiness. "Yea, I would like to play a game, what did you have in mind?" he asked as Ino thought.

"How about a small treasure hunt game, I hear that folks leave things lying around all the time." Ino smiled as Naruto nodded. They soon got up and started looking around the area to see if they could find anything. After about an hour of searching, they both found themselves in a training field not too far off from the hospital, that's when something caught Naruto's eyes.

Naruto went over and bent down to take a closer look as Ino followed and both gasped. Naruto picked up a kunai with three pronged blades, yellow straps for the hilt with a seal on it. "I-is this-!?" he started for Ino to finish.

"It has to be, one of the Fourth Hokage's special Kunai's!" Ino said surprised. "My father told me that he use to scatter them all around so that he could be anywhere he needed to be quickly, all around the village, and that it's still possible that there are many still missing!" she said, eying the kunai with interest, which Naruto noticed.

"Hey, Ino, why don't you keep the Kunai, you probably have a better place to keep it than I do." he said as Ino was about to protest, but Naruto smiled. "It's to say thanks for spending time with me." He said as Ino hugged him, thanking him.

The joy was short lived however when a rock hit Naruto on the head, and in turn, hit Ino as well as they both rubbed their heads and looked to see a mob of villagers with bats and other rocks staring hatefully at them both. "You dare disrespect the Hero of the Hidden Leaf!?" one yelled at Naruto. "And you!" said man pointed at Ino. "You disrespect our very village by willingly being near this 'think.'" he said as Ino was scared stiff at the scene till Naruto pushed her away.

"Go!" Naruto yelled as the mob ran after them, but Ino didn't run, this time not out of fear, but she wasn't going to abandon her friend to a bunch of lunatics as she got ready to fight with Naruto. "What are you doing?" he asked as she looked at him.

"I won't let anyone harm my best friend while I'm around." she said as the statement shocked Naruto who looked at the mob, now he had a reason to stay and fight.

Although brave, the two children didn't stand a snowballs chance against the rocks and bats that the villagers used in the initial hit, sending both Naruto and Ino to the ground and soon they were both surrounded and beaten on with the all the bats and rocks. Naruto tried to get to Ino to help her but kept getting pushed down. "Leave her alone!" he yelled only for them to ignore his plea, and soon Ino yelled in pain as a bat hit her on both of her shins at the same time as tears ran down her face as Naruto finally snapped. "I SAID STOP!" he yelled, and this time his voice seemed to create a wall of wind like force that scattered the villagers, like a gust of wind on sand or something. Soon there were two Anbu who arrived when they heard the commotion and saw the situation and glared at the Villagers, one saying "We might not like the kid any more than you, but to attack to kill!? What the heck is wrong with the lot of you!? He's still a kid, container or not!" he yelled, which earned a confused stare from the two crying children as Ino looked to Naruto.

She gasped when she saw his eyes. "N-Naruto, your eyes!" she said as Naruto blinked as she pulled the Fourth's kunai out so he can see the reflection and see that instead of his usual blue eyes, he now had purple eyes that had rings around the pupil.

Naruto blinked a few times to see if what he was seeing was accurate, then he heard the second Anbu smacking the first on the back of his head. "Careful what you say ya buffoon, Last thing you want is to get into a pot of hot water." he said as the Third Hokage walked up and looked at the first Anbu, who rubbed the back of his head.

Sarutobi sighed, "You're lucky you didn't break the entirety of the law...and that you're a veteran, we'll talk about your punishment later." he said as the first Anbu bowed, knowing he got out of the worst of it. "Now, arrest these men and women and show them how fierce the law can truly be." He ordered as the two Anbu were quick to jump on the Villagers as the Hokage quickly got the two children into the hospital to treat their injuries.

The following day, Ino had woken up in the hospital, remembering what had happen the day before after her and Naruto found the Fourths Kuni and found it beside her bed, smiling at what Naruto said to her when he said for her to keep it. Sarutobi was about to visit Ino to check on her when she saw another shadow approach, it looked to be her father, she soon heard the conversation taking place. "Ah, Inoichi. I'm not surprise to see you here so soon, let me go ahead and tell you your daughter is doing fine, she'll be sore for a few more days, but fortunately Naruto saved her before anything broke." he said as Inoichi let out a sigh of relief but looked at Sarutobi again. It would seem that the old Hokage knew what he was thinking. "You can't blame Naruto for what happened to Ino." he said at which Ino was confused, she knew that Naruto got the worse of the beating than her.

"I...I know sir..." Inoichi sighed. "It's just that...you know this wouldn't have happened if..." he then let out a sigh as he shook his head. "Ah well...what's done is done...she's safe and Naruto has earn my gratitude." he said as they both walked into the room to see Ino awake, they both paled a bit, not thinking she would be awake so soon from her injuries, which means she more than likely heard them talking. Inoichi though snapped out of it and rushed over to his daughter and hugged her. "Are you alright sweety, you weren't injured badly were you?" he asked, already knowing but wanted to make sure she would be alright mentally as well.

Ino nodded. "I'm fine Daddy." Ino said as he sighed in relief and soon went wide eyed at the sight of the Kunai of the Fourth by her bed. "Oh, me and Naruto found this while playing treasure hunt, he said he wanted me to keep it as thanks for playing with him." she said smiling and Inoichi let out a small smiled as Sarutobi let out a sad look. To which they both saw. "I got to give it back...don't I?" she asked, a little sad.

Sarutobi shook his head no. "No...I'm sorry, that's not what I'm sad about...but, I will personally give you a case for it." he said as Inoichi got up, concerned as to what was wrong and the Hokage knew he couldn't hide it any longer. "...Naruto is doing fine, he's already out of the hospital...and as of now, probably out of the Village." he said as both Ino and Inoichi gasped at this. The Hokage pulled out a note wrote by Naruto and started reading it.

"To Grandpa Third and Ino: I'm sorry for having to leave you both, I know you are worried about me, but I can't stay any longer. The looks of hatred and scorn are one thing, and the fact that they attacked me was bad yes. But those aren't why I'm leaving. I'm leaving because I couldn't stand the fact that they attacked my best friend Ino just for being around me. I know now that she'll be guarded more closely by Anbu than I was-" at which the Hokage glared at the Anbu that had received the punishment, who was accompanying Sarutobi, as said Anbu cleared his throat. "But I also thought that if I'm not around, then they would have no reason to attack Ino as well. So I'm sorry, but this is farewell to everybody."

Both Ino and Inoichi looked sad, Ino because her best friend left because of the Village and Inoichi because he at least wanted to help the boy who saved his little flower from the mob. Sarutobi sighed. "Unfortunately, non of my Anbu have found him, though not surprising sense he is well known for hiding from them when he has pulled off a prank." he said chuckling at the memories, but still looking sad as well as the others as Ino held the Kunai close to her.

Ino looked at Sarutobi and at her father. "Uhm...what...what did the Anbu mean by him being a container?" she asked as the Hokage sighed, knowing she would find out sooner or later by herself.

"You will have to promise not to tell a soul." the Hokage said as Ino nodded as he took a deep breath.

Over with Naruto, he had been hiding from some Anbu trying to find him, some calling his name in hopes to coax him out, one even offered to buy him all the ramen he could eat, only to receive an arm punch from one of his comrades to which he only shrugged, what else could they do? Naruto sighed. "Sorry guys, but I can't let my friends get hurt anymore." he said as he quietly crept away from the Anbu, who never sensed him in the slightest.

Ino blinked, having been told about the Nine-tailed Fox that was inside of Naruto and looked at the Kunai, both the Hokage and Inoichi expected her to throw it away or give it to Sarutobi, but what happened next surprised both of them, she held the Kunai closer to her as she cried. "So, he was suppose to be seen as a hero...but they only fear and hate him...why?" she asked as all the men inside sighed and Inoichi and the Anbu stepped forward.

Inoichi decided to go first. "For my part, it really isn't much about Naruto as it is the seal that is holding the Fox back...I worry that it will break, and though I am worried about Naruto's safety at this concern...I am more worried about the village and our clan...I'm sorry." he said stepping back and the Anbu went next.

"My reason is a bit stupid I admit...but at any moment I fear that the Fox may influence him. Make him into a killer, or make him undo the seal, so I don't like the kid because he's too loose a cannon, doesn't mean what those idiots did was right, in fact I hate the fact that they attacked Naruto. I said this once, I may not like the kid, but like heck I'll let any harm befall him, he's still a kid." The Anbu said. Sarutobi didn't exactly like what the Anbu said, but he knew he could at least trust him to protect Naruto out of duty at the very least.

Ino stayed silent, not really liking either reason as she just looked at the Kunai as all three looked at each other, leaving her to her own thoughts, though keeping an eye on her just to be safe. She soon pulled out some string that she keeps for making necklaces, ting one end to the end of the Kunai and then she tied it around her waist, she was going to keep the Kunai as a reminder, and a promise that if she finds Naruto again, that she'll make sure that he has a good reason not to leave the Leaf this time. "Father...you still there?" she asked as Inoichi stepped back in. "...I need to train..." she said simply as Inoichi understood and nodded.

A month later after leaving the Leaf village, Naruto was looking around and found a small house, which seemed to be abandoned for some years. "Hm...well if no one owns it, might as well call it home, it's a good ways away from the village..." he said stepping into the house and looking around, he soon found something that caught his interest, a sword on the wall. (I hope I describe this right.) Naruto got onto a chair and grabbed it and took a good look at it, it's steel was sharp and seemed to be able to conduct chakra rather easily. It had green wrappings at the hilt and an orange symbol with two sets of horns going up and one set going down. The arms were made from the same metal and was a bit more blue in tint. Naruto smiled and looked at the plank it was on and it read 'Valmanway.' Naruto also found a few scrolls that would help him learn some sword techniques and read a few, learning how to channel chakra into the sword.

Naruto decided to see what the sword could do with some chakra running through it, he already practiced the Almighty Push and Pull so he was good on those two. He stepped outside and faced a tree that was the beginning of a forest "Alright, lets see what you can do." he said as channeled the Push into Valmanway and thrust his sword in a stabbing motion and right when he did he dropped the sword for a burst from Almighty Push channeled from the blade and out, causing an almost new formation, one might even call Almighty Stab. The tree was obliterated into dust and so was the stones and other trees behind it for a good mile or two as Naruto stared wide eyed. "Whoa...I think I'll keep this." he said smiling and looking at the blade, and back at his eyes that reflected off the metal, still getting use to the new look. He sighed because the purple reminded him of Ino. "...I wonder how she's doing right now..." he asked and looked in the direction of the village. "But...this is for the best...I hope you can forgive me for leaving, but it's best so the Villagers don't harm you any more than they did that day." Naruto said to himself.

A year sense he left had past and Naruto had pretty much mastered the Almighty techniques, even the new forms of Stab and Slice. Currently he was meditating, he had decided to look deep in his mind, he had thought of a reason why everybody hated him, figuring out one day on his birthday and realized it was the same day as the fall of the Nine-tailed Fox, _'could it be'_, he wondered. He walked along the halls of what seemed to be a sewer system. He was thinking of how he would approach the Nine-tails when he did find him, course at this point he was not the usual happy go lucky kid he use to be. He admitted that he would show the Fox who was boss, for when he thought of this theory, his anger hiked at the Fox. He thought of how it was the Nine-tails' fault that he was shunned and that the Villagers attacked him and Ino. When he thought of the Villagers however he stopped and went wide eyed. _'Wh-what am I thinking? Am I becoming just like them? Just like the people that harmed Ino?' _he thought as he looked at his hands, having just thought of something, could it be that the Nine-tailed Fox was the way he is because of other folks treating him poorly? Could Naruto live with himself if he treated another like how he was treated? No, he couldn't, so he decided on a new approach right there and then, he decided to put on a happy mask for once and try to make friendly talk to the Fox, to prove he wasn't like the Villagers.

He kept on walking down the halls when he heard what sound like a chuckle from a very, very deep voice. Naruto gulped and approached the sound till he found a gate with the Kanji for 'Seal' on it, well now was the time of truth. "Excuse me." he called out, he found out that outside of the leaf, and at different villages he went to buy supplies and do odd jobs for money that being polite, though admittedly the kind of polite that folks stayed away from, (think of Gaara when he was first came into the show.) seemed to get a better reaction out of folks, well better than the reactions he would have gotten from the Leaf Village. "Is anybody in there? Uhm...maybe...the Nine-tails?" he asked as he tried to look closer.

The voice chuckled again as two huge red eyes opened up and looked at Naruto. "**Well, well, well, look who decided to grace me with their presence, heh, to what do I owe this honor?" **he asked sarcastic as Naruto gulped.

"W-well, I wanted to see if you...well if you were really inside me." he said and then the fox laughed a bit more. "So, well now that we're here, I guess we get to know each other?" he said.

The fox stopped laughing and got closer to Naruto, reveling himself as he tilted his head. **"Uh, y-you do know who I am, I am the Nine-tailed Fox...'The' Nine-tailed beast, who is the strongest and most feared, right?" **the fox asked and Naruto nodded. **"Uh...okay then...did...did you get hit hard on the head by that rock?" **he asked and Naruto shrugged, to which the fox nodded a bit weary, this was a first in...well ever sense the Sage of Six Paths.

Naruto on his part smiled a bit. "Hey, I just want to get to know you...you've been threw a heck a lot worse than me, and I been threw the realm of Hades and back because of the village." he said and the fox nodded in a 'you don't know the half of it.' manner. "So, that makes me think, you don't have any friends, so why not make one now? I'll go first. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen and my friends back at the village who I miss dearly. I hate the folks who harmed Ino when they attacked us. My hobbies are training with my new eyes and my sword Valmanway...also watering the few flowers I find. My dream...well it use to be the next Hokage, but now it's to be the best ninja that has ever lived on Earth." he said smiling.

The fox blinked some more. _**'Kid has gone loony...'**_ the fox then shrugged and cleared his throat. **"Okay then...I suppose it couldn't hurt that much...my name is Kurama, which not a lot of folks know...uh likes, likes...likes...hmm...I like rabbits...I think that's about it...Hates, well...everything, course...well I'm sure you understand." **Kurama said and Naruto nodded, listening. **"Uh...let's see...hobbies...well before I was sealed...hm...well, it's kind of odd, but...well I use to...carve some canyons and what not...I uh, liked carving into the Earth...and last, dreams...hm...heh, uh...well, that one is kind of odd...I don't really have any, wait, no, wait that's a lie, I do have one...and that's to actually gain permanent freedom...course...I'm not sure how to...'yet.'"** Kurama said, finishing up.

Naruto nodded at the last one. "Right, the second you get out, everyone tries to seal you away...by the way why did you attack the Leaf Village?" Naruto asked.

**"Ah, wondered when you would ask, well, the first strike was not of my own free will, you see a man named Madara Uchiha controlled me with his Sharingan...at least...at least I think it was Madara...an Uchiha I am most certain...Madara...not so much, still I was not of my own free will...course...I didn't exactly stop the attack when I broke free either but...yea." **Kurama said with Naruto nodding a bit.

"Seems you got a lot of pent up anger needing to be released, I'll try and find a way to let you vent it out when I can." Naruto said smiling and Kurama laughed.

**"Haha, thanks kid, er...Naruto, thanks...Listen, I can tell ya a bit about those eyes, their called the Rinnegan, see the Sage of Six Paths use to have them, uh the most direct decedents...crap, who was it...I think Senju, also Uchiha, but soon after the Uzumaki clan married into the Senju clan...course I'm not sure how you and no one else got those eyes." **Kurama said as they both shrugged, not able to come up with how. **"I mean...I suppose the great stress you went though was enough but still...anyways you know the direct effect, the Almighty Arts, I suppose I shall train you in the different Elemental Natures you can use now." **Kurama said as Naruto jumped up ready to train. Kurama chuckled. _**'Yep...a Loon...but, at least I won't be board now.'**_ He chuckled again, knowing that this was going to be a step into the beginning of a grand adventure, but neither one knew just how grand it would truly be.

**I hope this was to your liking everyone, this is the first chapter of many for this story, and I will do what I can to see it to the end, and trust me, we didn't even touch the surface of what all we'll be seeing in this new Naruto story. **

**Until next time, See you in the second Chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello everyone, here is the second chapter of the Hunter's Path. I thank everyone who is following and favored the story, and I hope that it continues to be to everyone's liking, and with that let us get to the story.**

**Also one thing I forgot to mention in the last chapter is that I own nothing here, and the OC here belongs to Methos-Kyuubi777.**

**Naruto and the Hunter's Path**

**Chapter 2**

**Return of the Hunter**

It has been seven years after that fateful day when the Villagers attacked both Naruto and Ino. For the most part everyone realized rather quickly not to mess with either again, or more accurately, Ino. No one has seen the blonde haired kid in all this time, and it has had a few unforeseen effects on the village, small but there. The first one was the fact that Ino, usually happy to go out and socialize and try to be with Sasuke, has now became reclusive to everyone except her father and on occasion Sakura. Ino would spend her days training in taijutsu and her families ninjutsus. The one thing that everyone noticed most however was the Fourth Hokage's custom Kunai that she still keeps tied around her waist, now with a stronger string so it wouldn't get lost during training or fights.

Another person who changed and no one expected was Hinata, who soon learned the reason of Naruto's disappearance and though hard to notice, anyone who knew Hinata could tell she held some bitter emotions to most of the people around the Village now, and only a few had an idea as to why.

Iruka had taken the news hard himself, though he was tough on Naruto, he could understand where the blonde was coming from, for he too was an orphan because of the Nine-tailed Fox and was wanting to help Naruto grow into a exceptional ninja, however he didn't let it break him, though he wanted to help find Naruto, Iruka knew that he would be helping by training the future ninjas, and one of which was dead set on finding him when they get the chance.

Sarutobi had kept his Anbu on alert for Naruto for all these years, had it been with anyone else, he would have feared the worse, but for some reason, the old Hokage had a feeling in his gut, that one day he would meet Naruto again, while he was staring out a window there was a knock on the door. "Come in." he said as the door opened to revealed Danzo along with two Root Anbu that had aided in the search. Though for different reasons than Sarutobi, Danzo also wanted to find Naruto and bring him back. "What can I do for you, Danzo?" the Hokage asked.

Danzo nodded and stepped in as both Root also walked in, with one of Sarutobi's Anbu there as well, just for protection purposes. "I think we found someone who can be of aid to the Hidden Leaf Village." he said as Sarutobi raised and eyebrow as Danzo handed him a report. "There's a Bounty Hunter walking around the different Nations, so far he has taken out a large amount of A-class rouges...and nineteen S-classes, with word from the Hidden Stone Village that he is hot on the trail of his twentieth. We know little about him except he has no ties to any village." Danzo said as Sarutobi's pipe dropped to the table, wide eyed at this.

"Nineteen, possibly twenty S-class rouge kills? That...is impressive." the Hokage said looking over the info. It had the basic description of the Hunter, or at least what the could get, the report basically gave a clothing description sense that's all anyone would tell them, and that was to look for a man that wore a black cloak that had the sleeves that go past his hands, with a white as snow cloth wrapping around the waist like a belt. (Imagin Obito/Tobi's cloak for the war, just without the Uchiha symbol.) Along with what seemed to be black ninja pants and sandals. "...Bring him in ASAP...and...well off the record, do you think he could be of any help finding Naruto?" Sarutobi asked.

Danzo nodded. "I do, that's why I brought this to your attention, we have to think of a way to get him to work for us, even if it's temporary, to find Naruto." he said, taking a seat to plan on anything. "...Question now is...what do we provide?" to which both sat there thinking. Danzo turned to his Anbu and handed a letter. "Give that to the Tsuchikage, though we are not exactly on friendly terms, I'm sure he would be willing to pass on a message to this Hunter." he said as both Anbu bowed and left to the Hidden Stone Village.

Out a ways, away from the Leaf Village and near the gates of the Steam Village, a group of ninjas, all with the pendant with an upside down triangle were gathered, 7 in all with one man in the front acting as the leader. This man was a little taller than average, skinny built, but with a scar over his right eye with a patch over it. He had Black hair that went just past his neck and an aqua colored eye. "Alright listen up. The fool of a Tsuchikage has refused to abolish my bounty and is dead set on having me killed, so now, by the word of our master, he has waged war on the Jashinists, and also against the Village Hidden in the Steam." he said as the group yelled in agreement, what non of them noticed however was a shadowy figure watching, perched up onto a tree.

Said figure then jumped down from the tree and faced them. "Man, a tiny village against a bigger one? Wonder who would win in that outcome." he said as he stepped out of the shadows, this man soon revealed to have the same black cloak and white cloth belt as the hunter, with blonde spiky hair and blue eyes, with the unmistakeable whiskers.

"Who are you? You dare intrude upon us!?" the leader yelled at the man now walking up to them.

"Tck, tck, tck. Haven't you got any manners? Ah well." he said shrugging and stepping closer to them, grinning. They could now get a good like at the man, or in this case, boy. "Name's Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto started, as he now stopped about eight to nine feet away. "By the way, I'm looking for a man, Kirā I believe is his name...has an aqua colored eye...in fact he looks like you" He said, pointing to the leader. "Well, except you have bluish green eyes." he said.

The man's eye twitched a bit at that last comment. "That IS aqua, you moron!" the man, known as Kirā, yelled at Naruto.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head with a cheese grin. "Oh, okay then, thanks for clearing that up." he said and the lifted both arms, which revealed kanji tattoos on the top and bottom of his arms, from the wrists to the elbows on each, the ones on top identical to each other, same with the bottom kanji tattoos. Many recognize them as the seals normally made by the hand to perform jutsus, but couldn't recognize the pattern for whatever jutsu for either set, but the bottom tattoo set started to glow blue and before anyone could do or say anything Naruto jutted his hands at them. "Wind style: Tunneling Palm Jutsu!" and then two mini tornado shot out of the palms of his hands and towards the group.

Kirā had to stand his ground while 4 of his men were blown back from the jutsu. _'Dang it! He shot that out too fast for a proper defense. Who is this kid?'_ He thought as he prepared his own jutsu. "Earth Style: Earth Shuriken Jutsu" he called out as the very earth in front of him shot out shurikens at Naruto, who simply stood there and used some wind chakra to divert all the shurikens to his sides, not even touching him.

Naruto tilted his head a bit. "Man, you're aim sucks, I mean come on, a blind elderly man could throw better than you." he said, toying with his target, which seemed to work as the rouge was nearly foaming at the mouth. "Here, let me show you how it's done." he said, having a scroll appear out of a seal from inside his sleeves and into his right hand, to those watching though, it seemed like he pulled out of thin air itself. Naruto then disappeared and reappeared above the group as he unrolled the scroll to reveal a summon kanji as he aimed it to the group as 20 kunai's appeared out of thin air. Performing some hand signs and had the amount tripled to 60 "Ninja Art: Kunai Shadow Clone Jutsu." he said, and performing the Ram hand sign and faced his palm to the group. "Ninja Tool Manipulation: Kunai Hail Storm!" After that, all the kunai's charged at the group. Kirā performed an earth dome and the rest used whatever weapons they had to deflect most of the kunai's. Three fell to the onslaught of kunai knives while the other three deflecting suffered serious gashes.

Naruto landed on the ground and looked at the four men left, Kirā unharmed but scalding mad at the blonde. Naruto chuckled. "Man, four of you are still standing? I must be slipping." he said as the kunais vanished and so did the scroll as he did another set of hand seals, this time Kirā bringing up a mud wall. "Fire Style: Raging Fire Storm!" he called out and spat out an engulfing amount of flames, though what caught them by surprise was it seemed to be slicing at the wall of mud, and whatever the fire touched, like tiny blades were in it.

"That isn't possible, fire jutsus don't slice threw things!" Kirā shocked as he then noticed his mud wall getting gashes all over it, like a sword powered by wind chakra, but that shouldn't have been possible with Naruto still using the fire jutsu. Kirā jumped back and performed another earth dome while the three remaining ninja didn't know what was happening until it was too late and the mud wall shattered, burning the rest of them, and their fallen comrades into ashes. "So...you mixed wind chakra with your fire jutsu...impressive." Kirā said, trying to figure out a way to get into the offensive and out of the defensive.

Naruto gave an impressed whistle. "Nice, few ever realize what I did with that, too bad you can't do anything about it now." he said laughing as he summoned his blade Valmanway, having it slide out of his sleeve. The sword glimmering blue as he point it at the rouge ninja, and in a more serious voice. "Now, I believe it's time for you to fall." he said.

Kirā narrowed his eyes and got his kunai ready to parry Naruto. _'Never seen a blade like that before, it's a bit wider than a normal Rapier Blade...huh and double edge too...'_ he thought. But before he could think of anything else, his kunai was sliced away from the hilt and his chest had a stab wound on both ends that appeared out of nowhere as blood came out of his mouth, shock was riddled all across his face. "H-how?" he sputtered out.

Naruto shook his head a bit. "Guess you never expected someone like me. Anyone can channel wind chakra into a blade to sharpen it...but a master of wind can extend the wind chakra and strike without even moving their sword." he said as the chakra died down as he held out his other hand. "Almighty Pull." he said as Kirā was sent flying towards Naruto as he got Valmanway ready to slice, and once the rouge was close enough, Naruto sliced with his sword, taking Kirā's head clean off his shoulders as he grabbed the head. "humph, wanted for slaughtering an entire district, and selling the Village's structural weakness to another village...not a smart man, were you?" Naruto said as he pulled out another scroll and unrolled it, sealing the mans head inside of it for easier transport, who would honestly want to see a hunter carrying a human head around?

**"That took longer than expected, guess the man really was quick on his feet."**Kurama said inside of Naruto's head, to which Naruto shrugged and shook his head. **"Ah well, he's dead, we're several hundred thousand ryos richer, and that's your twentieth S-class rouge killed."**

Naruto nodded. "Yes, speaking of which, let's go get that bounty already...and get something to eat, I'm hungry." he said walking back to the Stone Village.

Soon Naruto made it to the Stone Village, Naruto went to the Tsuchikage's office where he pulled out the scroll to reveal Kirā's head. Oonoki nodded and motioned for his aid to give Naruto the bounty for this man. "Thank you for taking this man out." he said. "Is there anything you can tell us that you learned?"

Naruto nodded. "Yes sir, seems this man was now part of the Steam ninja force...though I don't know why a small village would take in a known rouge." he said looking at the Tsuchikage, hoping he would fill in that blank.

Oonoki sighed. "Well, I do have an answer for that...one of their most prominent members, Hidan, has joined an organization calling themselves 'Akatsuki.' Though unwilling at first, he later joined...and from what my sources tell me, he managed to get their leader to aid in making the Jashinist the leading factor of the Hidden Steam Village...now the village is like an unstable explosive tag, which I believe we need to take out but..." Oonoki would look out a window. "No one else thinks they are that big of a problem...though that is true now, who's to say in the future."

Naruto nodded. "They'll get bounties placed on them soon enough and then they'll be taken care of." he said, turning to leave when he was stopped again by Oonoki.

"There is one other thing, it seems that the Hidden Leaf has requested you to go visit them." the Tsuchikage said, giving Naruto the letter which asked Oonoki to send the bounty hunter their way.

"Hm...so they don't know it's me?" Naruto asked to which Oonoki shook his head no. "I see...don't know why I should bother." He said and sighed. "...Screw it, I'll go see them." he said as he nodded a bit of a good-bye to Oonoki and headed out the door. _'I suppose it wouldn't hurt to see Grandpa Third again.'_ he thought.

**"Though it does seem odd that they would contact you, everyone basically knows you go to them once you get one of their rouges." **Kurama pointed out, to which Naruto nodded mentally.

_'Yea I know...I am just as curious...but we'll know soon enough.' _Naruto thought as he made his way to the Hidden Leaf Village now, though neither knew just what exactly they would be getting themselves into. A few day of traveling had led Naruto to the Gates of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. "Well...it's been forever sense I've seen this view." he said walking into the gates as two of the gate guards called to him.

"Excuse me...uh, sir?" one of them called, a little shocked that a kid was walking around by himself. "Do you have a passport or identification?" he asked.

Naruto sighed, showing the note from Danzo and Sarutobi. "I'm not registered anywhere." he simply said as the two gate guards looked over the note and nodded, allowing him in.

Sarutobi was doing some paperwork and looked out a window. "Hm...no word back on the hunter." he said to himself as there was a knock on the door.

"Excuse me, but there's someone here to see you." the Hokage's aid called in as Sarutobi nodded to himself, wondering if it was Danzo or the Hunter.

"Let them in." Sarutobi said as the door open and his pipe fell out of his mouth again. Standing right in front of him was the one boy he has been looking for all this time, and wearing the bounty hunting cloak that he read about. "N-Naruto!?" Sarutobi said shocked.

Naruto gave off a goofy looking grin and placed both of his hands behind his head. "Hey there Grandpa, it's been a while." he said smiling, which earned a warm smile from the old Hokage as Naruto took a seat in front of Sarutobi. "So, I got your letter about wanting to see me, or, well the bounty hunter." he said as someone else entered the room.

"Talk about killing two birds with one stone." The new comer said as Naruto turned around to see Danzo walking in. "Sorry I didn't knock, but I heard that our guest had arrived and I didn't want to be late." he said taking a seat as well.

Naruto narrowed his eyes a bit. "No offense intended, but I wasn't expecting to see you as well, Danzo Shimura...so I'm guessing there's more to this than wanting to ask me to go hunting?" Naruto asked, in his more serious voice, which caught Sarutobi off guard, but he sighed, having guessed something like this would happen.

The Hokage nodded. "Yes Naruto, you see what Danzo said earlier was true, we were going to hire the bounty hunter to find you to bring you home, and hopefully keep you home on your own accord...but seeing as you 'are' the hunter, well..." he trailed off a bit, to which Naruto nodded a bit. "So...shall we begin with business?" he asked and Naruto nodded again, wondering what they had up their sleeves. "Alright, so what would it take for you to stay in the Leaf Village?" Sarutobi asked.

Naruto looked at both Sarutobi and Danzo and leaned back thinking. "Hm...well honestly I would say nothing...but, knowing you, Third Hokage, professor of the ninja world, you probably have a few things to entice me...so let me hear what you will offer, then I'll give you my answer." he said, leaning forward now to hear everything.

Sarutobi nodded, honestly that was a better answer than what he was thinking he would get. "Well for starters we can get you registered in as a Jounin and get you set up with your own house." he started, Naruto just sat there listening, that part didn't interest him that much. "We can have it to where you can still partake in your hunting missions all across the land with ease, and even give you a squad of your own." he said and Naruto raised an eyebrow at the last part, which Danzo noticed quickly.

Danzo would nod a bit. "Yes, your own squad, an assassination squad or a ninja hunter squad, even a intelligence gathering squad if you want." he said, to help out with the deal as he smiled to himself, thinking they just got a great deal now getting not just their jinchuuriki back, but an experienced hunter as well in one packaged deal. Naruto was starting to think about it, if they could just get one more thing in than they had a good shot having Naruto staying, and then Danzo added one more thing. "We can even make it to where the Uzumaki clan is recognized as a major clan, having a seat in the war council." he said, to which Sarutobi looked at Danzo, thinking that was a rather risky move.

Naruto on the other hand nodded. "Hm, well that is more than I thought I would be offered...but I have a few...requests if I may." he said to which both Danzo and Sarutobi nodded. "Now I'm guessing the house is already payed off?" he asked to which the Hokage chuckled and nodding yes. "Alright, that was more a question anyways, but on to the first request, I have an idea you want to start up the C.R.A. with me being the only member, thus head of a major clan, but I would like to be able to choose with whom." he said to which Sarutobi and Danzo looked at each other and nodded, thinking that was acceptable. "And second, regarding the squad, I know I missed the sign up for being a sensei for the recent batch of genin, but I want to train a squad to my...methods of hunting, specialized by me if you may. So I would like to sign up for a genin squad from the next round of graduates." he said.

Sarutobi smiled at that one. "Actually Naruto, I can do something a bit better, see recently a genin squad in training failed their true test, however this particular squad was made up of Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Rei Inuzuka. Their sensei, Kakashi Hatake, failed them because Sasuke refused to work with the other two, however Sakura and Rei decided to work together, so he has recommended that we replace Sasuke with someone else, which we happened to have one student that passed and unable to be part of a squad due to lack of numbers, I think you'll remember her, her name is Ino Yamanaka." he said smirking and Naruto had a truly genuine happy look to him now. "Now ordinarily we would have Kakashi try this new group, but seeing as Sasuke is the last of his clan, he needs to be trained to be a ninja, so Kakashi is training Sasuke as a apprentice, thus we need a new sensei for team 7." Sarutobi said and Naruto nodded, read to be the teams sensei. He then was handed a registering form to be their sensei. After Naruto signed it Sarutobi smiled. "Go meet them at the top of the ninja academy, that's where they are waiting for their new sensei." He finished, to which Naruto got up with a grin on his face. Sarutobi smiled and handed Naruto a Leaf headband. Naruto, to which he accepted it and walked out the door, going to meet his new team. When Naruto left Sarutobi looked at Danzo. "Well, I'll be honest, I didn't think you would pull that deal out of no where." he said, raising an eyebrow, he didn't disagree with Danzo's choice, for it kept Naruto in the Leaf, but it was just not what he expected Danzo to do.

"Well my friend, I do have my reasons." Danzo said looking at Sarutobi. "Naruto is in possession of the Rinnegan, and as the reports says, he is also in possession of some very powerful jutsus. As such I do believe that Naruto can teach what he has to his children when he has them, and when he does then the Uzumaki clan will be a very powerful force all in itself, so might as well give them reason to stay loyal to the Leaf." he said to which Sarutobi chuckled.

"Heh, you are one cunning man Danzo, now..." the Hokage took a puff from his pipe. "How is the village going to react, as we have seen it, though not all of the villagers celebrated when Naruto left, we can't deny that well over three-fourths of the village did celebrate." he finished to which Danzo nodded. "I suppose only time will tell." Sarutobi added and with that Danzo bowed a bit and got up to leave, leaving the Hokage to his thoughts, and to look out the window to the face of the Fourth Hokage.

Three kunoichi were sitting on the steps on the top of the academy, two having failed because of an arrogant Uchiha and the other not even being put on a team till now. The one in the middle was Ino Yamanaka in her usual purple attire with her blond pony tail, fiddling with her kunai that was still on the string. To her right was a girl with green eyes and long pink hair looking down at the ground, she was Sakura Haruno in her usual red dress, but it seems like something had happened to make her down. The final member was Rei Inuzuka, the girl had brown hair that reached just to her neck with two bangs going down right to the middle of her brown colored eyes. She bore the usual red Inuzuka fang tattoos on her cheeks that proved which clan she came from. (Imagine a younger Hana.) She wore a white baggy over shirt that was partly tucked into her black pants. (like Deidara's shirt before joining Akatsuki.) She also wore black sandals to match her pants. She wore her Leaf headband over her forehead in the normal fashion as she looked to her two pups, both had grey fur, but one had blue eyes and the other had green eyes. They were on her lap waiting with the others. "So, Nōsu, Nanbu, who do you think we'll get as our sensei?" Rei asked, Nōsu being the blue eyed pup looked up to Rei, yipping and Nanbu, the green eyed pup looked around, curious as well.

Ino looked over to the three and chuckled a bit but looked back at her kunai again, Sakura still looking down as Rei was talking to Nōsu and Nanbu. Soon the sounds of footsteps were heard landing in front of the group and what came next shocked all three of them. "Well well, so this is Team 7, huh? I see you kept the kunai Ino." said a familiar voice as all three looked up to see Naruto leaning on the railing bar on the side of the roof. He had taken the leaf metal plate off the normal blue cloth and tailored it to his white cloth belt on his waist.

"N-Na-Naruto?" Ino sputtered out as she slowly got up and Naruto gave a small smile, glad to see Ino again, but the next thing he knew he was tackled by Ino in a bear hug which caught him by surprise.

"Heh, glad to see you too Ino." Naruto said hugging Ino back and when they finished the next thing to hit Naruto was Sakura's fist to his stomach. "Gah, gl-glad to see you too, Sakura." he coughed out a bit "Mind telling me what that, gah, what that was for?"

"Cha, that was for leaving Ino like you did!" she said standing in front of Naruto and sighed, giving him a small hug. "Glad to see you're alright, you idiot." she chuckled.

Naruto gave a small chuckle as well. "Yea...I guess I did deserve that one then." he said looking at Rei. "Ah, Rei Inuzuka, correct? And who are the two pup with you?" he asked as Rei looked at Naruto and smiled, life has been way too boring without Naruto around in her mind.

"Yea, good to see you again Naruto. These are my two pals, Nōsu, which means North, is the one with blue eyes, and the other with green eyes is Nanbu, which means South." Rei said as both pups barked in union. "So, Naruto, Mind if I ask why you're here? I'm guessing by that Leaf plate you made ninja as well." she said.

Naruto chuckled. "Yep, well, officially anyways now. And the reason I'm here is simple." he said smiling. "I was made sensei for Team 7." he said which earned a unison of 'What!' from all three girls. "Yep, so now that we are all here, let's do this formally, introduce ourselves to everyone, get to know each other better." he said. "If you want I can go first." Naruto offered to which all three kunoichi nodded. "Alright then, my name is Naruto Uzumaki. My likes are ramen, and the folks I care for. My dislikes are those that would harm folks I care for deeply." he said to which Ino blushed a bit at that one and Sakura punched her arm in a joking manner. "My hobbies are hunting rouges, training, and watering flowers." he said to which he got a confused stare from all three. "What? I like to water flowers, there's a bit of calmness in it. Anyways my dream is to be one day the best ninja to have ever walked this earth." Naruto said finishing as he got a 'wow' from all three. "Alright, Ino, you are up next." he said.

"Right, my name is Ino Yamanaka. My likes have narrowed down to really only you, my family, and my team." Ino started which earned a small blush from Naruto. "My dislikes are a good portion of the villagers. My hobbies are tending to flower gardens and training. My dream...uhm well I guess I don't have one anymore, heh. See I was wanting to bring you back with whatever it took." she said scratching the back of her head and giving a slight chuckle as Naruto had found the humor in it. "I'll try and find another goal soon now."

"Alright, I'm next." Rei said smiling wide. "I'm Rei Inuzuka. My likes are Nōsu and Nanbu and my friends and family. My dislikes are those who would threaten my friends or family. My hobbies are taking Nōsu and Nanbu out for walks. My dream is to have the best man beast taijutsu in all of history!" she claimed excitedly which got a smile from Naruto.

Sakura shook her head smiling as she cleared her throat. "Alright, I'm next. I'm Sakura Haruno. My likes are...well I guess my team and family now." she said, looking a little sad at which Naruto noticed. "Anyways what I dislike are people hurting my friends. My hobbies are reading and studding genjutsu. My dream...is well...I don't have one." she said looking down again.

Naruto crossed his arms. "Forgive me if I'm out of line here...but did something bad happen while I was gone?" he asked.

Rei nodded with both Nōsu and Nanbu growling slightly at the memory. Rei looked at Sakura, wondering if it would be alright if she told it and Sakura nodded, knowing what Rei was thinking.. "You see Na-sensei." she said catching herself. "Before Ino joined our team, we were originally paired up with a boy named Sasuke Uchiha, which Sakura had a...slight crush at the time with. Use to be a huge crush but when Ino helped Sakura get close to him, all he did was push her away more and more. When we were on the same team, Sakura thought that things would be different, where we could get along better..." Rei let out a sigh. "Well...he refused to work with us, so me and Sakura worked together to get a bell from our sensei, Kakashi. We managed to get one each with a combo attack, but Sasuke, refusing the believe anyone could do better than him...stabbed both of us in the back to try and get a bell for himself." she said. There was a long silence after that as Naruto shook his head.

"He's not going to last long like that." Naruto said as he cleared his throat. "Alright then, well seeing as you can use teamwork effectively I don't see a reason to delay the fact that you three deserve to pass." he said smiling, which earned a smile from his new students as well. "So instead we'll jump right into training tomorrow, but be warned, it's going to be tough." he said as he looked at all three of them. "Can someone tell me one of the toughest assignments a ninja can have?" he asked.

Sakura raised her hand up. "I believe some would say assassination missions, especially if you aren't trained for it emotionally." she said and Naruto nodded. "W-wait...are you going to train us t-to be...?" she asked, as all three paled a bit.

"Sort of, see we won't go after just anyone, we'll be hunting rouge ninjas. But don't worry, we won't get an assignment like that for a long time." he said gaining a sigh of relief from all three girls. "But we will be training for those missions tomorrow." he pointed out which got a gulp from all three. "But until then, let's go have a celebration feast at Ichirakus." he said as all three girls couldn't help but laugh at that, there were some things that truly never change.

**And that is the end of Chapter two. One thing I would like to point out to everyone is the fact that Naruto got the Jounin status without the need of the exams. I know some folks would ask how that is possible and I did some research into that and learned that Kishimoto himself said at one point that if Naruto, in cannon, wanted to become a Chunin all he needed to do was ask for it and he would be granted the status, Naruto just chooses to go about it through the exams.**

**If there is anything else anyone is curious about leave a question in the reviews and I'll answer them in the following chapters. Until then, see you in Chapter three.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Welcome back Everyone to another Chapter of the story. I enjoy the comments I am getting for the story and seeing that folks are enjoying reading it, thank you all.**

**As per usual, I own nothing here. And with that, I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**Naruto and the Hunter's Path**

**Chapter 3**

**Birth of Team Wolf**

The day has been going surprisingly well for Naruto, first he had gotten a good deal for staying in the Leaf Village again, got himself a squad that he intends on making the best in the Leaf, and now they were heading to his favorite ramen bar in the entire world. There was one small problem though, on the way to Ichirakus, they came across two other genin, Sasuke Uchiha and Neji Hyuuga. Naruto looked at them both. "Hyuuga, Uchiha, can I help you?"

Sasuke let out a snort at how Naruto called out to them. "What are you doing back, looser?" he asked, which got a glare from the three Kunoichi behind Naruto.

"Well we're on our way to get something to eat, but you two are in our way, so yea." Naruto said with his goofy grin and hands behind his head, which agitated Sasuke a good bit. "And what of you Hyuuga?"

Neji narrowed his eyes. "I am here to show the people the truth about you." he said which got a confused stare from Naruto. "They say you have accomplished many great feats, but that cannot be possible. Destiny wouldn't have allowed it."

Naruto blinked a few times from that last comment. "Wait, you're saying that you can see Destiny and Fate?" Naruto asked which got a nod from Neji. "Sweet, so you're a prophet. Can you tell us what the winning lottery numbers are?" he said chuckling, which got a snicker from the three girls and some other folks who were now watching.

Neji frowned a bit at that. "That has nothing to do with seeing the Fate, and that Fate says that you are nothing but a false hunter, when you left you were the dead last of the Academy, and once a looser, always a looser. There is no changing that."

Naruto blinked a bit. "Wait, but if you see one future, than you have to see them all...Oh I get it, you're a con artist, well you won't be getting any money from me." He said which was the last straw for the girls, who started to laugh till they almost fell on the floor. "Besides, Hyuuga." He started, getting a bit more serious. "Destiny has a way of changing things around, one can't deny Destiny I will admit." he said but gave another grin. "But then again, who's to say what Destiny has in store for anyone, so why worry about it? Now, if you two will step aside." He finished.

That got a furious look from Sasuke as Neji did his best to keep his cool. Neji stepped forward. "Then I suppose we will need to prove to you and everyone that you are a true fraud, trying to say you defied Destiny." he said and activated his byakugan and both he and Sasuke got ready to fight.

Naruto slumped his shoulders and arms down. "Really? Come on, we're trying to get something to eat." he whined a bit as both boys charged at Naruto. Naruto sighed a bit. "No way around it then." he said, straightening himself up as he jutted his arms out with the bottom tattoos glowing again, which caught most folks attention, especially one with silver hair and his headband over his right eye. "Wind Style: Tunneling Palm Jutsu." He called out which summoned the two twisters out of his palms, smacking the two boys and sending them back. Naruto than vanished to reappear behind them, back towards them and elbows out to strike their backs, which is what happened as both of them let out a yelp of pain and fell to the ground. Most people who saw this were stunned, both Neji and Sasuke were rookie of the year in their respective years of graduating, and here's a boy same age as Sasuke, one year younger than Neji, and just took them both down without even trying. "Now than Uchiha, Hyuuga, if you don't mind, we'll be off." he said.

Sasuke coughed up a bit and glared at Naruto. "Dang it dope, you know my name, use it." He said, getting back up to his feet along with Neji, however Neji wasn't looking like he was ready to fight anymore. Sasuke stepped forward a bit with a smirk. "You think you have the right to look down on me when it was you who abandoned your home." Sasuke said, which got glares from the three girls and some of the folks watching as well.

Naruto turned towards Sasuke and glared at him with the Rennigan eyes. "For the first part Uchiha, you're right, I do know your name, but as of right now you haven't got the skills for me to be impressed with you, nor do I respect you as a person, though nothing personal for either sense I have...issues with others. The only thing respectable I find about folks is their clan's name...though I do admit there are exceptions." he said, and the three girls looked at each other, they couldn't help but think of how much Naruto has changed. "And second, I did what I had to. The Leaf was threatening people who were getting close to me, of course I wouldn't expect you to care, one who follows in your brothers footsteps."

Sasuke was fuming from that last comment "I'll make you regret that." he said forming his hand signs for the fire ball jutsu when a man appeared and stopped Sasuke from finishing, and said man was the same one with silver hair.

"I apologize about my students behavior. Allow me to introduce myself to a fellow Jounin. I am Kakashi Hatake." He said giving a welcome bow a bit, to which caught many folks off by surprise. Everyone recognized Naruto, but only a few of them knew he was a Jounin.

Naruto looked at Kakashi. "Kakashi Hatake, I've heard a good bit about you on my travels, you're one of the few legends around." He said, nodding his head a bit for his greeting.

Kakashi chuckled a bit at that. "I doubt I can exactly call myself a 'legend' but it is nice to see you again Naruto. I hope we get some time to chat later." he said and took Sasuke away for a lecture about attacking comrades...again.

Naruto shook his head and motioned for his team to follow him again to continue onto their destination. Neji, who had watched the whole scene, folded his arms, thinking. _'Odd...he claims to respect a clan but not the people in it...and not only that, but you proved me wrong on your talent...Naruto Uzumaki, you are a mystery...'_ He thought, and decided to follow, hoping that Naruto would answer some questions that he had in his mind now.

After a few minutes walking the group made it to Ichirakus where Teuchi and Ayame both greeted Naruto, Ayame was the most happy to see him again, almost leaping across the counter to hug him. "Naruto! Long time no see, how have you been?" Teuchi asked as he got Naruto's order up, before he left, Naruto always seemed to order the same thing, and the two never did forget which Ramen Naruto loved.

"I've been good, thank you." Naruto said, chuckling as he gave Ayame a pat on the back as he and the group sat down and ordered their meal. Before the bowls came however Naruto narrowed his eyes and looked behind him to see Neji, who was standing inside the ramen bar. "What is it now?" he asked.

Neji let out a sigh, sort of swallowing his pride in this one. "I...I was wondering if I could join you and your team...I wanted to ask you something." He said which got a confuse stare from the three Kunoichi, but Naruto thought about it for a bit and sighed, nodding his head to his request and Sakura moved over so Neji could sit next to him and talk. Neji bowed a bit for a thank you and sat down and also ordered. "Thank you." he said as he turned to Naruto. "Earlier you told Sasuke that you only respected his clan's name, but not Sasuke himself...I know I'm in the same boat as well as...well just about everyone else from what you said, but how can you respect a clan but not the people in it? They are one of the same are they not?" he asked.

Naruto looked over at Neji. "To many that is the way it is...but I don't see it like that." He said as everyone got their ramen orders, and thanked the two owners. "You see, your clan, the Hyuuga clan, has a lot of strong members, and the techniques that is used by you and the other members of the clan is fierce if caught in it. Your clan has power yes, however, you yourself haven't exactly made a name in the world as an individual. However just getting your name out there is only a step above being acknowledge by what clan you're from really, like...Kakashi Hatake for example, I know of his skills and I know of his accomplishments. He has made a name in the world, thus he is deserving to be acknowledge by his full name, you see where I'm going with this?" he asked to which Neji nodded a bit, understanding. "However I don't fully respect Kakashi Hatake, I respect his skills, but until I know him personally I can't say whether I will respect him, as a comrade and a person, or not. Now, with Ino, Sakura, Rei, Ayame and Teuchi. These folks I do know personally, and I respect them for they showed me respect as well." He said. Neji blinked a bit but nodded in understanding. "Now, I suppose one would say that if you know one member of a clan than you know them all, but again that is not the case. True many ninjas in...let's say the Nara clan for example, form what I learned, many are on the lazy side but also a genius, however I have come across a few Nara's born into the clan who were as energetic as an Inuzuka." Naruto said, which earned a chuckling smile from Rei and her two puppies.

Neji nodded understanding what Naruto was saying and took in a deep breath. He was silent for a long time, _'So he sees a person for what he knows about them personally huh?...I suppose it is a different way to look at the world...but thinking about it...I suppose I have done her wrong then...'_ He thought for a while then he opened up his eyes. "I think I understand..." He said and turned to outside the ramen bar. "Miss Hinata, would you care to join us?" He asked as the three genin and two store owners looked to where Neji turned to and Naruto, without looking back, motion her to come on over.

There was a small eep when Hinata walked out of her hiding spot behind a wall and walked into Ichirakus. When she got inside she bowed to Naruto. "I-it's good to s-see you again, Naruto." She said, blushing a good bit, to which the three girls saw.

Naruto was taken back a bit from what Hinata said, he expected Chunins and Jounins to say that because they are somewhat suppose to be respectable to each other, but from another genin he didn't know much about caught him off guard. Neji looked over to Hinata. "Would you like to join us...cousin?" He asked, which caught Hinata by surprise, but she nodded and took a seat, ordering a bowl for herself. After that the day went surprisingly good for Naruto after the two Hyuugas joined in. He noticed that Ino kept going over to Hinata and whispering something, but didn't bother listening to what they were saying, girl talk and all that. After the meal the two groups went their separate ways.

[With Hinata and Neji]

The two were walking back to the Hyuuga estate. Hinata didn't really bother greeting other folks that were walking by, she still was rather distant from the village aside from her clan, and when she needed to work with her team. A while later Hinata got the nerves to ask something on her mind ever sense supper. "Uhm...Neji? I-I was wondering...I l-like that we are ta-talking now, bu-but did something ha-happen?" she asked.

Neji looked to the sky a little and smiled to Hinata. "Yea...I suppose you could say that...Hinata?" he called out and Hinata stopped to look at her cousin. Neji let out a deep breath. "Listen...I'm...I apologize for how I acted...ever sense the talk me and Naruto had...let's say I'm seeing things a bit differently...I'm not saying I forgive the main branch for what they did...but in all honesty, you are the only one who went out of your way to be nice to me...so also, thank you." he said, which got a smile from Hinata.

"Y-you don't need to apologize, brother." Hinata said reassuring. "You've had it r-rougher than I have, so you have a good reason. But thank you. I-I'm glad that now we can be more of a fa-family now." She said and Neji smiled and patted Hinata's shoulder as the made it to their home.

[With Naruto.]

Naruto had told his squad to show up at training ground 7 tomorrow as he went his own way to his new home. Soon he found it and entered, looking around and nodding. "Nice. I think I can make this work." He said. Before he could start looking around however there was a knock at the door. "Hold on." Naruto said as he opened the door to find the Third Hokage and his old sensei at his door. "Ah, hey there grandpa, Iruka. What brings you here?" he asked as he let Sarutobi and Iruka into his new home.

Sarutobi chuckled, walking in. "I came by to see how you are doing in your new home, also to learn how the team is doing." he asked as he sat down at the table along with Iruka, eager to talk to Naruto and to see how these three were doing.

Iruka would nod at what Sarutobi said. "Yes, also I wanted to have a chat, it's been forever sense I last saw you, and I have to say, you sure have grown into a strong ninja." he said as Naruto chuckled, taking a set in front of the two.

Naruto then cleared his throat. "Well I am doing good, thank you. Also about team 7. I didn't test them as to what a sensei 'is' suppose to do, however I do believe that they are truly ready. Two of them already managed to prove themselves against Kakashi Hatake, and the third is friends with the other two. I doubt teamwork will be an issue at all. However I am training them starting tomorrow." he said as he handed both a folder.

Sarutobi looked over it and let out a puff of smoke. "So...training them to be ninja hunters huh?" he asked. "Though it is up to the sensei to determine what kind of team to make them into, do you think this is the best course, they did just graduate after all." Sarutobi said and Iruka also looked a little nervous.

Naruto nodded. "Yes, but don't worry, I won't subject them to actual missions where death is involved for a couple more years...but I will admit I will train them for the worst of it." he said as both Sarutobi and Iruka were somewhat satisfied with that answer. For the rest of the day the three were talking and catching up on old times till it was time for all the two of them to head off and Naruto to get ready for tomorrow.

The following day Naruto had gotten up and ready to head to training ground 7 to meet with his team and start on their training, he figured a small spar to get things going would be good then to the actual training. When he got there he saw that the three kunoichi were early and smiled. _'Time to see what they got. Sakura, great chakra control possibly and good genjutsu. Rei and her two ninja pups are nicely in sync, and Ino with her mind jutsus and specializing in disguising paper bombs as flower petals...show time.' _He thought "Alright, today we will be training to get you three ready for anything the world has to throw at us, but first a spar to get a feeling of where you are at. No holding back now, and begin." he said as all three girls looked at each other and nodded.

The first to strike was Rei with Nōsu and Nanbu as they started spinning around in the classical Inuzuka strike. "Fang Pursuit: Trilogy Strike!" The three were moving around, making it hard to see where they would end up, but Naruto was able to pic up a pattern and saw an opening right through the middle of the three, and took it, jumping through.

However when he did he quickly found out that there were paper bombs on kunais waiting for him. "Oh sh-" he was interrupted by the explosion. Naruto jumped up out of the smoke without a scratch on him, smirking. "Sorry, but you'll hav-" He stopped talking when he saw Rei and her pups charging and circling around him, giving him little opportunity to dodge. "Okay that is doing better." Naruto commented as he held out his hands. "Almighty Push." With that he deflected the fang trilogy.

There was one problem though, Naruto forgot to keep an eye on Ino, considering he was trying to not get sliced or blown up. Ino smirked as the split second opportunity showed itself as she did her hand signs. Naruto saw the signs at the very last second and quickly vanished, using his mastery of wind to propel him to the ground for a proper defense. "Okay, that was close." Naruto said sighing as he then noticed Sakura finishing her jutsu. "The heck?" he asked, wondering what she had cooked up.

Sakura smirked. "Alright 'Sensei' let's see how well you can handle my special form of genjutsu." She said, she had to use a few hand signs though so it took a while to perform, hence having the paper bombs distract and the multiple attacks, would have been better had Ino caught Naruto but beggars can't be choosers. Rei rushed over with some small papers with a seal on it and place one on Ino's right shoulder, one on her own shoulder, one on both pups, and the last on Sakura's arm.

Naruto noticed the papers and tilted his head, why would Sakura, caster of the genjutsu, need to wear a seal to protect her. "So...what's the trick going to be?" he asked, blinking as he saw Sakura charging to punch him. Naruto couldn't help but have a sweat drop run down his head as all he did was hold up his hand to block her attack, but what came next shocked the crap out of him, her fist went right through his hand. _'So where's the real Saku-'_ his line of thought was interrupted as the fist made contact with his face as he was stumbling back. "...what...the...living...crap...how on earth did you pull that off? Eh, never mind." He said, shaking it off, thinking it was just a trick as he did a hand seal to dispel the genjutsu that was up. Rei did another charge with her two pups. Again Naruto was going to deflect them. "Almighty Push." He said, and what he saw was the earth going everywhere as per usual, but Rei, Nōsu, and Nanbu still charged like nothing happened, catching Naruto off guard yet again, but this time he managed to get away from the attack. "Okay...what the heck is going on? I just dispelled the jutsu." He asked, now getting confused, "This 'is' genjutsu, right? Should have dis-wait." he said, remembering the papers. "Wait...wait a minute..." He snapped his fingers and pushed chakra out to dispel the genjutsu again, this time though keeping the chakra flow going constantly. When Ino went in to strike Naruto managed to block successfully this time. "Alright, that was rather impressive." He said as he laughed a bit. "Having genjutsu via the sense of touch is a tough one to pull off, but to mix the chakra in the air is a feat all in itself." He added and jumped back to pull off a small jutsu.

However, before he could get far, Rei would stop him "Tunneling Fang!" Naruto would jump to the right only to find paper bombs there to stop him as he jumped away from that attack. When he landed he looked around and smirked.

"Ah, so there's a limit to the range huh?...hm, alright then." Naruto would hold up his hands. "That's enough for today, I got a good sense of how you all fight." He would look at Ino first. "I noticed you didn't disguise your paper bombs, but I can understand the purpose behind it for this fight. However never let an opportunity to catch an enemy off guard, no matter what because if what you do can take down the enemy before the full swing of your plans than you stand a better chance of surviving a fight." He said, to which Ino rubbed her shoulder and nodded. "Rei, Nōsu, Nanbu, your strikes are well in sync, but you have too much of a pattern, either by how far apart you are from one another or that you strike at the same time, leaving gaps for the opponent to slip through, like how I did." He said as Rei, Nōsu, and Nanbu would nod a bit, knowing they needed to work on that. "And Sakura, your genjutsu is...well one of a kind, it'll turn the tide sure enough but you need to work on your strength." He said as he rubbed the side of his face. "Had you had some chakra built into your fist, that would have knocked me to the ground." He said.

Sakura would look down and sighed. "I can't do that Naruto, fact is, I don't think anyone can constantly pump out chakra for the jutsu, and store chakra for an attack." She said.

Naruto smirked a bit. "Well, no 'ordinary' ninja can I will admit. But I'm not your ordinary Jounin." He said and looked at all three of them. "And by the time I'm done training you three, this won't be an ordinary ninja team. Trust me, by the time we're done, you'll be able to both expand the distance of your genjutsu and focus chakra into your fists." He said to Sakura, then turned to Rei. "You'll also be able to punch right through any defense that might stand in your way as well." He said and turning to Ino. "And be able to pull off quick and deadly attacks while under the best of disguises. I promise that all three of you will be known world wide." He said as all three kunoichi smiled at that and nodded, determined to prove their sensei right. "Alright, rest up and we'll get a mission from the Hokage, then we'll go into training after." He finished up as all three gave a "Yes Sensei."

**"Heh, impressive bunch you have there kid." **Kurama said and chuckled a bit as Naruto nodded in his mind, smiling at his team. **"Though I do wonder, will they be up to the task of being a ninja hunter squad?" **He asked as he turned his head to the mental image of Naruto.

Naruto was silent for a moment. _'I have faith in them, from what I just witness, all three have potential, also they are determined to prove that they are the best around.'_ He thought as he looked at Kurama. _'Besides, these three are more impressive than I ever was before I got the Rennigan. Honestly I would be pathetic without it...and these three are doing good without the Rennigan, so you can see where my hopes are coming from.'_ He added as Kurama chuckled, but nodded, knowing where Naruto was coming from. Naruto would smile again. _'Who knows, they might even surpass me one day if they are determined enough and take well to my training.'_ He thought and with that all four would go to the park to rest for a small spell.

**And here is the end of Chapter 3. I apologize about the lack of the use of Naruto's sword, Valmanway, but I'm not going to have him pulling out his sword against fellow ninjas, he only uses his sword to kill his targets as to make sure he doesn't accidentally go overboard with training. I can promise however that it will be used in Chapter four, also you'll learn of some of his adventures before returning to the Leaf.**

**I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, if there are any question please feel free to ask and I shall answer them, until next time, see you in Chapter four.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Welcome everyone to Chapter four of the Hunter's Path. I am truly sorry that this chapter is late getting out, I have had a rough week and the next one might be a little late as well, hope not, but it might. Again I am sorry.**

**I have gotten a comment/question that I think does need to have some light to it:**

**neossqull= "I got it's a good start to what i can only assume will be a great story, but you've got to stop censoring the curse word it's annoying. You made this M-rated for a reason didn't you?"**

**Yes it is rated M, but as for the censoring that isn't for you readers I will admit, truth is, I don't curse in real life. I don't say it, I don't write it, and as far as it is here, I don't type it. I feel bad if I even let it slip, but having it censored makes me feel better. I have done this chapter up to where there is nothing to censor, so everyone, tell me if this is better, of if you prefer the other way. (I know when one person has a complaint like this multiple people do, that's why I'll try this new out.)**

**Tell me what you think of this, if majority says change it to where there are no censors then I'll change the first three chapters, if you prefer the other way as with the three chapters, I'll change this one. I apologize now though to those who like one way but majority says to go the other, one cannot please everyone.**

**One more thing, there will be times were you'll be reading this story and it'll be a 'yea, that's an M rated material' but language isn't the only factor into a ratting.**

**With that, please enjoy this new chapter.**

**Naruto and the Hunter's Path**

**Chapter 4**

**A threat to Wave**

Team 7, after the spar and break, were sneaking in the bushes and the trees. "Target in sight, beginning genjutsu trap." Sakura whispered into her mic, forming some hand signs. The target in question, a cat known to all the Leaf as Tora the Terror. Tora then looked over the Sakura's direction and hissed and darted off. "Crap, Ino, Tora's heading towards your position." Sakura said.

"I'm on it!" Ino said, as she threw a few nets in hopes to try and capture the cat. Tora however dodged to the left and right of each net sent her way. "Oh that cat's ticking me off." Ino said as she did a few hand signs. "Mind Transfer Jutsu!" She called out hoping to catch Tora, but missed her target and hitting Nanbu by accident. _'Whoops.'_ She thought, undoing the jutsu.

Nanbu would shake his head as he ran after Tora again. Rei ran out of the bushes charging at Tora with Nanbu now on her left and Nōsu on her right. "I'm on it, I'm on it." Rei said, getting close to Tora before saying "Dog Pile!" and she helped Nanbu and Nōsu into the air as they both managed to land and pin Tora to the ground. "Yaha! We got the cat!" She said smiling wide.

"Congrats." Naruto said smiling, picking Tora up. "Now to return you." He said as Tora hissed and clawed Naruto's face like a scratching post, to which he frantically tried to pull her off of his face without letting Tora go. "Ow ow, Crap, stop stop stop!" He yelled trying to get Tora to stop, and of course Kurama was laughing his tail off at the sight. _'Dang it, help me calm her down!'_ He thought to Kurama.

**"Sorry kid, if Tora was a wanted rouge I could help...but you seem to have everything under control."** Kurama said, still laughing as Naruto mentally gave him the middle finger. **"Oh come on, you took down twenty S-class rouge ninja, one little cat couldn't give you this much trouble."**

_'Screw you Kurama, you're safe in my mind, I'm getting the clawing from Hades here!'_ Naruto thought as he finally got Tora to stop clawing him, now his face was covered in red claw marks as he grumbled. "Tora...you best be glad you're wanted back in one piece." He said as the three kunoichi laughed a bit from that. "Come on girls, lets go get this cat back to her owner."

After Naruto and his team returned Tora to her owner the four made it back to the training grounds to start their training. "So, sensei, what are we going to be doing first?" Sakura asked, crossing her arms a bit.

Naruto smirked at the question. "For now we will be working on Chakra control." He said and pointed to the trees behind them. "First is to climb those trees, without the use of your hands." He said, which got a confused stare from all five, the girls and pups as Naruto chuckled and walked up one of the trees like it was nothing. "Once you get this done then we'll move on." he said as all three girls were aw struck watching Naruto do this. "First you need to concentrate your chakra to your feet, too much and you'll break the surface and shoot off the tree, not enough and you'll slide right off." He said as he watched the girls nodding and trying giving a whirl now, however they found it tougher than they thought. "Don't worry, it'll take some time, and honestly it's the easiest of the exercisers." Naruto said as he looked over to see Kakashi walking up. "Hello Kakashi Hatake, how may I help you?" He asked.

Kakashi did a lazy salute of greeting. "Yo, just wanted to see how you were doing. Mind if we talk for a bit?" He asked as Naruto thought for a second and nodded, jumping down from the tree and following Kakashi.

Naruto nodded and looked to make sure his students were doing alright, which they were. "So, how is Uchiha doing?" Naruto asked. "I hear he is in need to learn more about fighting 'with' comrades."

Kakashi sighed at that and nodded. "Yes...he's still having trouble with that...but it's worse than I thought, mind you though...I admit I might have passed them after a lecture had he not attacked his two teammates just to get a bell to pass." He said shaking his head. "But he is the last of his clan, so it will be better if he was a ninja of the Leaf...but if he gets any worse than he'll loose his ninja status." After that Kakashi shrugged a bit. "Ah well, he's resting right now so I thought we could talk, Jounin to Jounin, if you don't mind." He said as Naruto shrugged and decided it would be alright to chat. "Well first if you don't mind me asking, how did you manage to pull off a jutsu with only tattoos molding the chakra?"

Naruto smirked a bit from that question. "So, you noticed what I did, did you?" He asked as Kakashi nodded and Naruto rolled up his right sleeve to show the two tattoos. "These are two jutsus that are my only 'pure' one element jutsus." He said and held his arm to show the bottom tattoo. "See what I did was get the normal hand signs and got the kanji tattoos for them, I got it to where the one near my elbow is the first hand sign and of course the last tattoo is the last hand sign." He said and Kakashi nodded. "Now I got tattoo ink that has small fragments of chakra conducting paint shards, thous when the chakra runs through the tattoos it molds to the tattoo, but I also can control it to where it can bypass the tattoos as well." Naruto then let out a smirk. "You a betting man Kakashi Hatake?" He asked and Kakashi looked interested now. "I had actually came up with an idea after getting it for these two jutsu to see I can cast them faster, but soon after I realized, the Sharingan might not be able to copy it because of no hand signs. If you want to try and prove me wrong then by all means." He said.

Kakashi thought about it for a second. "Alright, if I can 'not' copy the jutsu you pull off then I'll buy you and your team lunch next time." He said and Naruto blinked and smiled, thinking now that he had something big he wanted. "However, if I 'can' copy it, then you have to join me and a few others for a get together we usually have, I was told you probably wouldn't join on your own, so what do you think?" He asked.

Naruto thought about it for a bit. "Trying to prove that not everyone is harsh in the village Kakashi?" He asked and Kakashi gave an eye smile and nodded. "I have to admit, you are better personality wise than I would have thought to offer to take my team out to lunch, alright then, I'll go for that." Naruto said as he pulled the sleeve down and Kakashi lifted his headband to have his Sharingan ready. Naruto placed a hand on the ground and had some chakra run down his arm. "Wind Style: Shattering Earth Jutsu!" He said and used his wind chakra to dig into the earth and spread around in a matter of a second, causing a spider web crack design, anyone under him would have been sliced up from both the wind, and the cut up rocks.

Kakashi watched and nodded. "Alright, here goes." he said and performed the hand signs, he caught a bit of the chakra movements just enough to see how the chakra molded, it was tougher this way than if Naruto used hand signs, but he still had a good enough idea of it. He then placed his hand on the ground. "Wind Style: Shattering Earth Jutsu!" He said, however it no web patter showed up. "Wait...I know I did it right." Kakashi said and lifted his hand and sighed, turned out he did perform the jutsu halfway, he sliced a hole into the earth.

Naruto blinked a bit and knelt down to the hole. "I'll be honest...I didn't think you would pull that much off...heh." He shook his head smiling. "You've earned the name 'The copy cat ninja' alright." he said and got back up. "Problem is I gave you a tough jutsu, that one requires more wind manipulation than actual jutsu casting." He said and sighed. "Well looks like I lost thou-" He was cut off by Kakashi putting up his hand.

"How about we call it a tie? We pull our money and buy lunch with some fellas who wants to meet you with your team? Your choice of restaurant too." Kakashi offered.

Naruto thought for a second and nodded. "Fair enough, after my team is done training we'll hold you up to that." he said chuckling and walked back to check on his team as Kakashi nodded fairwell and walked back to check on Sasuke. When Naruto came back he saw Ino and Rei with her two pups on the ground panting. Naruto looked at the their trees and smirked, they made it half way up. "Very good...wait...where's Sakura?" He asked and heard her calling him as he looked up and went wide eyed a bit, Sakura had already made it to the top, she looked worn out, but heck, it took Naruto a whole day to make it up there. "...Well...That's new." was all he could say and nod. "Alright, we'll rest up a bit before continuing." Naruto said and all three gave a very tired yay, to which he couldn't help but laugh at.

**"Dang, lass has some tricks under that dress." **Kurama said, amused himself, seeing someone out performed Naruto on a first time attempt. **"I know you said they could surpass ya after some years of training kid, but you might not have been exaggerating now." **He finished, to which Naruto could only nod at that, not really knowing what to say to that.

The rest of the day went well with Sakura still making sure she can reach the top each time she ran up the tree, Ino and Rei got close and finally managed to make it to the top by the time their training was done, with Naruto giving advice on how to hold their chakra to keep a steady grip. He had to admit, he was pleased with how things went with the three girls and two pups. They were currently at the BBQ restaurant, thanks to Ino choosing. The team was accompanied by Kakashi and Guy, and to Naruto's surprise, the two Clan heads Inoichi Yamanaka and Tsume Inuzuka. The eight were basically learning a bit about each team, how the genin were doing. Guy looked over to Naruto, having just remembered something to ask. "By the way, what did you say to Neji yesterday? He is being more youthful than normal, I must truly thank you." He said and gave his signature smile. Naruto was confused for a second, wondering what Neji was doing to earn a thanks from his sensei. Guy saw this and smirked again. "Well, now he isn't talking about the unyouthfulness of 'fate' or 'destiny' the way he use to, now he speaks of it in more youth! Helping Tenten and Lee train now, encouraging Lee to train now instead of belittling him, and so much more!" He said happily.

Naruto smiled. "I just simply said how I viewed fate, as far as I see it, one can only say what fate had for the past, no one can say for the future though, Fate has a way of being a jerk that way." He said chuckling which earned a laugh from the others as well. After the dinner meeting the group was going to call it a night as the stepped out and going home. The kunoichi had a ball actually surprising the other ninjas as to what they could, especially when Sakura had sneaked her genjutsu on everyone without a soul noticing, not even the Hyuga head that was there that listened to the conversation at another table, though everyone had a laugh at that. However when they stepped out Naruto stopped and held up five fingers and the back of his hand faced some buildings, he then counted down to two fingers when he caught a giant Shurikan and looked up to see Mizuki on the top of some buildings. "You need to be more careful, you could have hurt someone there, Touji."

"So, the demon brat actually returned huh?" Mizuki asked laughing while everyone but Naruto got ready to take this man out, he dared attack a Leaf Ninja without a good reason and now he was going to pay.

What surprised Naruto next was what his team did, first to say anything was Sakura. "Hey you prick! You have no right to call Naruto-Sensei that! You think you're all that, you try fighting us first Cha!"

Ino would step up with Kunai's in both her hands ready to strike as Rei, Nōsu, and Nanbu got ready to fight. Naruto knew the three were low on chakra, so Naruto kept an eye on Mizuki. "So, Touji, you seem outnumbered, you really want to strike?" He asked, hoping to not have to kill him, but he had Valmanway slide out of his sleeve, just in case he needed it.

Mizuki growled a bit. "So you three brats want to stick up for the Nine-tails? Fine! Let's see you take me on!" He yelled, about to strike at the three girls when he just stopped, having trouble breathing it seemed when Naruto appeared behind him, having Valmanway vanish. At that moment Mizuki vanished, only thing left was red liquid falling to the roof and the Shurikan falling and shattering to peaces when it hit the ground.

Naruto sighed. "Sword Art: One thousand Strikes." He said to himself as he jumped back down. "Sorry you had to see that, last thing I wanted was that fool hurting one of you...and now I guess I have some explaining to do as to what he said." He said to his team, what came next, though, was not what he expected.

Ino stepped up and said "What, you mean what the prick said about you being the Nine-tails? We already know." She said as Sakura and Rei nodded. "See the Hokage told me the day you left, and I guess he didn't expect my reaction. He then told my friend Sakura, who actually started feeling sorry for you, especially sense she declined ya for a date the week before." She said and Sakura sighed, hoping to not have to remember that, and Naruto chuckled, saying not to worry about it. "Well he then realized, we knew you better than any of the villagers so the law that restricted the knowledge about you being a...a...a...crap what's the word again?" She asked Sakura, who happened to be the brains when it came to knowledge.

Sakura thought for a second. "Uhm...I think...yea I think the word is Jinchuuriki." Sakura said nodding. "Yea, it's Jinchuuriki, one who is a sacrifice to seal away a dangerous and powerful being known as a tailed-beast. In a way, a hero." She said and Naruto blinked some, not knowing that someone else actually knew that. "Yea, we know you better than anyone else, well us of your age, and we know you're not a dangerous person...okay, well now you are but for a different reason than why folks fear you." Sakura said shrugging.

Naruto smiled, but then he felt a tap on his shoulder as he turned around to see three Anbu behind him. "Can I help you three?" He asked, knowing he had some explaining to do now.

The one who tapped Narutos shoulder nodded. "Yea, sorry but you need to see the Hokage, regulation and all, we saw the whole thing...impressive you were able to strike before us." He said and looked back at the blood running down the wall. "Also...if I may make a request...please the next time you kill someone here in the leaf, 'if' you have to, make sure to not make such a mess...we don't have janitors around for blood." He said as the two behind him nodded.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Uh...ye-yes, sorry about that." He said, he wasn't really thinking except that Mizuki threatened his team, his friends. "I'll head over to the Hokage's now. Team, meet me back tomorrow at the training field, we'll get back to the usual as always." Naruto said as he made his way, as well as the others.

Three weeks have passed sense the incident with Mizuki and the three genin had mastered tree climbing to now they could simply walk up like it was nothing. They had got the hang of water walking, though at times it gets clumsy because of the waves Naruto makes to keep them on their toes. However Naruto added two more exercisers to the training, the first was to hang upside down for at least an hour, which was a tough one sense they had their own weight fighting against them, but they were doing good, Sakura already past and hour while Ino and Rei were at 45 minutes before falling. On one day Naruto was taking them to the mission office to get a mission. "So, you three feeling up to taking a mission outside of the Leaf?" He asked, to which the three genin were excited about.

When they made it to the mission office Sarutobi smiled to them. "Ah, hello Team Wolf, good news is no Tora mission, I already have Kakashi and Sasuke on it." After which came in said two with a clawed up Sasuke with a hissing Tora. "So, we have a few D ranks for your team." He said about to name them when Naruto cleared his throat.

"Hokage sir? I have a request. I believe that Team Wolf is ready to take on a C rank Mission." He said to which Sarutobi and Iruka looked at Naruto. Sasuke huffed, thinking they wouldn't get it.

Sarutobi thought about it, taking a puff of his pipe. "...eh, why not, from what I've seen the three are close to being Chuunin level with their chakra anyways." He said. He then looked through the missions. "Bring him in." He said as Sasuke fummed.

Naruto shook his head and went to talk to Kakashi, just to make sure Sasuke doesn't do anything stupid. When he did, two men walked in, an old drunkard wearing a heat and a younger man, one to look to be his son in years and a small rope around his head and a cross on his chin. "Wait, I'm being protected by three girls? What is this?" He asked.

The three kunoichi had an eyetwitch from what the old man said as the younger one chuckled out of embarrassment. That was when Naruto walked up to them. "Don't worry si-wait...Tazuna? Kaiza? What are you two doing here?" he asked.

Rei looked over to Naruto "You know that old fart?" she asked as Naruto nodded a bit. "Well tell him he needs some freaking manners." She said crossing her arms as Nanbu and Nōsu barked in agreement.

The younger man, now known as Kaiza smiled. "Well, if it isn't the hero of the Mist and Wave, didn't think you'd be here of all places, are you going to accompany us?" he asked as Naruto nodded. "See Mr. Tazuna, everything will be fine."

Tazuna nodded, gulping a bit, hoping that Naruto wasn't mad. "Yes...sorry, I didn't know, uh, these three your students?" He asked and Ino smirked and held up a peace sign, showing that was true. "Oh, uh...heh, sorry."

Sarutobi cleared his throat. "Your mission is to escort Tazuna and Kaiza back to the Wave County, should be easy with Hidden Mist also patrolling the area, but we never can be too careful."

Naruto nodded. "Alright team, be ready to leave in half an hour." He said as the three kunoichi nodded and darted off to get ready. "So..." Naruto looked over to the two. "What exactly are you expecting?" he asked.

Kaiza sighed. "Well, there's been some bandits lately forming some sort of cult...good news is they generally don't kill anyone who isn't a ninja right off the bat, but they have started mugging and killing those who do resist, we rather have some protection, but as far as I know they are not ninja themselves." He said.

_'Sound familiar Kurama?'_ Naruto asked in his mind as the huge fox only nodded, they have heard that the Jashinists have started taking in anyone who was willing to kill another, and there were plenty of way to convince them too.

After everyone gathered around they head out to the Wave County. Sakura looked over to Naruto. "So, how do you know these two? You've been to Wave before?" She asked.

Naruto nodded. "Yep, once during a hunt for the Mizukage. I guess I should explain some first though. A few years ago the current Mizukage was under the control of a masked man in the shadows, and the man was preparing to start a civil war to weaken the Village and obtain the power the Mizukage had. I managed to be in the village at the same time before crap hit the fan, had a tussle with the masked man, and freed the Mizukage from the genjutsu controlling him. Now I say that because the Masked man went to another fella named Gato, a business man who was running the Wave County into the ground for money. I was told to go in and disrupt Gato's shipping industry to free the Wave County again, well in a way. Wave is now technically a village under the control of the Hidden Mist Village, still that way right?" He asked.

Tazuna nodded. "Yes, though we did see an increase in taxes for protection from what he had before Gato showed up, we still rather be under the rule of the Mizukage than under the rule of Gato, Gato would have killed the Wave County without a second thought just to get another ryu. So everyone's basically happy, and we even have Hidden Mist workers helping with a bridge to bring in more trade."

Naruto nodded. "Speaking of Hidden Mist-" he started as a mist started to roll over the area, however this one was thick as Naruto quickly ducked to avoid a huge blade, easily twice his size as a man hidden in the mist tried to bring the sword down just to have Naruto to catch it. "What brings you here, Zabuza Momochi?" He asked as he got behind the figure and kicked him away.

There was a chuckle as the mist vanished as a man wearing a Jounin's vest for the Hidden Mist, placing the giant sword behind his back. "Glad to see you're still as sharp as ever Naruto Uzumaki." He said as a boy no older than the genin jumped down and bowed a bit.

"Haku." Naruto greeted and looked around. "Where's Gouzu and Meizu?" He asked as the two Demon Brothers showed up from the trees. "Kind of far our for you to be patrolling aren't ya?" He asked.

Haku took off his mask. "Well Master Naruto, we have been traking a small group of Steam Ninja out this way, they tried to kill Madame Mei, the Mizukage's assistant." He said as there was some footstep close by as the group turned to a group of ninjas wearing the Steam headband.

"Well, looks like you found us." The leader said smirking, holding out a sword. "And now we get to offer you as sacrifices." The kunoichi and bridge builders stepped back. "Also, we're getting a pretty good sum of cash from an 'old friend' a Mr. Gato." he said.

Naruto stepped forward and summoned Valmanway. "Well, looks like this could get interesting." He said as Zabuza brought out his sword. Haku put his mask back on and pulled out his needles while the Demon brothers got their chains and clawed gantlets ready. "Let's send these cult fanatics down to Hades."

**Yes, I know I left it at a cliffhanger, I apologize for this as well, but the fight scene that will come is rather long, and this chapter is late as it is, I try to get one out every Monday.**

**Anyways, here it is, Chapter 4. Like I said earlier I changed the wording up from the how I did the other three to get rid of the censors, but please, tell me which way you prefer because I'll change it next time I post up a chapter.**

**Until next time, see you in Chapter 5.**


	5. Announcement

**This is not a new chapter but an apology as to why the chapter is late, I know some folks don't like reading update posts but for those who are curious here is what I have to say:**

**To everyone who's waiting for the next chapter, I am sorry it is running late, I originally had planned to post a chapter a week but I'm having trouble getting the details of each chapter down. I will get the next chapter up soon, how soon I don't know and I apologize about that, but I promise it will be soon.**

**If anyone is curious as to why I'm having trouble, it's sort of a combination of busy weeks and an overactive, unorganized mind full of possible future ideas for the next stories. I have the base, or gist, of how I want to do this story, but I'm working on the details as I mentioned earlier, so again I am sorry.**

**Thank you all who are following this story, those who have favored it, and for leaving comments. It lets me know that there are folks who injoy reading this story and it is honestly because of all of you that has gotten me motivated to continue and create more stories.**

**Also a shout out to neossqull, Soul Reaper With a Core Drill, and Methos-Kyuubi777. Neo and Soul helped by telling me how to improve on the story, and now the first three chapters have been revised and also for Methos who helped me come up with the details of this Naruto Universe to give it a good start and flow.**

**Until next time, See you in the true Chapter 5: When Steam and Waves Clash. Bye.**


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